Former US Open champion Lucas Glover makes his return to competitive golf at this week’s Transitions Championship, two months after spraining his right knee in what has been described repeatedly as “a freak paddle boarding accident“.

Anxious to avoid revisiting the trauma of the accident itself, during which he collapsed sideways into several feet of lukewarm Hawaiian surf, Glover used his pre-tournament press conference to stress his fitness.

“I would say the next shot I hit [after the injury] was the first of February….so that was 5, 5 ½ weeks. I started putting, but even that bothered me. I started chipping and putting 3-4 weeks ago, full speed – no pain. But I couldn’t do anything more than 90 minutes without feeling fully fatigued and worn out. It wasn’t just my knee, it was my whole body. I just wasn’t in good golf shape…

“[Now] the knee is 100%. I’m in good gym shape, but need to make sure I’m in good golf shape to be able to walk four days in a row. That’s the plan for this week, and to evaluate things next week. Swing-wise, I am 100%; ‘have been for a few weeks now. It’s just the walking and the fatigue walking brings. So, all in all, feeling better.”

Lucas Glover tees off at 8:58am tomorrow morning in the company of fellow major winners Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh.